Andy Rhines

Harvard University

Rhines is a sixth year Applied Mathematics Ph.D student in Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, where he's advised by Peter Huybers. He studies the atmosphere's water cycle and climate variability on a wide range of timescales. A few of his research interests are: Estimation of moisture sources — regions from which precipitation most recently evaporated. Mapping of dynamical causes of rainfall (i.e., the processes responsible for transport of water vapor from source to sink) such as atmospheric rivers. Interpretation of stable water isotopes in precipitation, and where they are recorded in paleoclimate records such as ice cores and speleothems. Orographic precipitation (that which is caused by mountains or other underlying topography), and the effect it has upon ice sheet mass balance and global water resources. The past and future of climate variability and extremes. He uses modern measurements, atmospheric models, and paleoclimate records to examine how temperature and precipitation vary in space and time.